Proposition 19: High-profile Issue, Low-profile Campaign

Littleton residents will soon be able to shop where offices once stood. Last week, local retail investor and developer Republic Investment Group closed on a 63-acre site at 700 W. Mineral Ave. for $50 million, records show. Demolition of the existing 680,000-square-foot office building there began Wednesday, RIG owner Grant Nelson said. The building was once home to Louisiana-based telecommunications firm Lumen, which changed its name from CenturyLink in 2020. “This property has been so underutilized for so long, that’s really the exciting part … When people went home during COVID, they never really utilized this facility fully ever again,” he said. As it bought the land, RIG immediately resold 18.5 of the acres to Costco for $5.8 million, and 17.5 acres for $17.1 million to San Antonio-based apartment developer Embrey, records show. Embrey will build 370 apartments on the southern end of the lot, west of Broadway and north of County Line Road. “Based upon the incentive agreement with Littleton, we were able to have a better land price for Costco,” Nelson said. Littleton is kicking back 50 percent of sales tax revenue for the next decade for all retailers onsite, up to a total reimbursement of $29.5 million.

Plans for a small Cherry Creek condominium building have been nixed, and half the development site has a new owner. Frank Penn and Dave Bracht, two longtime friends, planned to build a four-story project across two parcels at 325 and 329 Detroit St., which combined are just over a quarter acre. The pair got the site rezoned in September 2023, and refined their design earlier this year, adding some office and retail space, and saying groundbreaking could be a year away. Last week, however, Bracht sold his 6,250-square-foot parcel at 325 Detroit St., which he’d bought for $2.8 million in September 2022.

A new flock is taking over Ptarmigan Country Club. The club outside Fort Collins was purchased this month by Heritage Golf Group, a Virginia-based operator that expanded into Colorado two years ago. Records show the company paid $6.1 million for the land. Heritage now owns 39 private or semi-private courses across the country, including The Golf Club at Bear Dance in Larkspur, Plum Creek Golf Club in Castle Rock and Colorado National Golf Club in Erie.

Denver Post beat writer Bennett Durando opens up the Nuggets Mailbag periodically during the season. You can submit a Nuggets- or NBA-related question here. Been hearing a lot of talk about the NBA TV ratings being down, and fans not showing interest in the games. It feels like old-school fans such as myself are tired of constant 3s being thrown up.

The 2024 All-Colorado football team, as selected by The Denver Post staff based on statistical analysis, relative value to team success, postseason production and the old-fashioned eye test. Austyn Modrzewski All-Colorado selection Austyn Modrzewski of Mountain Vista poses for a portrait at the Denver Post in Denver on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024.

On a blistering cold Christmas Eve in 2023, the Broncos attempted to keep their playoff hopes alive against the New England Patriots when Sean Payton got carried away. Denver’s head coach was ultra-aggressive during the final stages of the game, burning timeouts and giving the Patriots the chance to march down the field to convert a game-winning field goal. A year later in Los Angeles, the Broncos once again faced a high-stakes situation.